i have a 08 fit sport MT and it has a rear sway bar, wheels and tires and it handles great but now i want suspension. so what do you all recommend? i need it to be able to take bumps but still run with the best. i love to auto cross and drive the back roads so your info would help out alot.

 

Well from what you describe you need Koni Yellow adjustable shocks and struts; But those aren't available for the Fit, and don't appear to be on the horizon.

 

For autocross, I'd get:

1) Coilovers
2) Good brake pads
3) Sticky tires
4) Larger rear sway bar
5) Front and rear strut tower bars

 

tires. coilovers.

 

matt got it right

 

yeap. tires is your number one upgrade possible.

 

Also depends if u gonna go autocrossing or lapping days. U need good tires for sure but doesn't have to be R-compounds.

I'm using a set of Showa tuning damper kit myself & and it works great for street driving & lapping days so far. I think a rear STB/sway bar will help if I go autocrossing again next year.

 

I pretty much agree ith the listed items except the larger rear antisway. We tried an 18 mm rear bar with the stock 21 mm front and it was just a bit too stiff to get good road grip. If your events are run in very smooth lots you may be all right but not in rough pavements.
We finally decided on the Monroe Air Lifts (MA811) and no antisway bar at all, front or rear. That setup worked well on racetracks as well.
That combined with 15x7/42 mm offset wheels and 205 tires turned the fastest lap times on our 'A/X' course. It should be noted our Fit still has the second slowest time, beating only a loaded Metro Lsi (but not a Metrro xFi with its 800 lb weight advantage and 300 cc disadvantage).
Where SCCA put it in A/X classifications is handicapped severely against Minis.
The one lowered Fit we ran was too stiff on 195/50x15 wheels and slid around too much but it could have been the tires. No doubt Hoosiers would have helpe tremendously.

 

I have run a stock Fit Sport at Autocross using-

Stock tires and wheels

15x7 rims +38 mm offset with Bridgestone Potenza RE-01Rs 195/50-15

15x6 rims +50 mm offset with Kumho V710 205/50-15 tires

The Stock tires are a joke for any sort of performance driving.

The Kumho V710s are good but not enough to make up for stock suspension.
I came in second out of 4 and lost out to a Toyota Corolla with RE-01Rs (experienced driver usually 2nd in H-stock class for last season).

The Extreme Performance Summer Bridgestone RE-01Rs were the surprise of the day. They handled nearly as well as the R compound V710s and were within about 0.5 seconds on 35 second runs which is very reasonable.

If you had a fully upgraded suspension the V710s might work better- or if they were on 15x7 rims maybe.

The other good street tire is Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec.

 

wow thats a lot of good info i will put to good use, thanks alot guys

 

Have you tried disconnecting the front bar and replacing rear shocks with the Monroe Air Lifts 811's. That is legal here and improves handling immensely.
PS If you can use V710's you must be able to use Hoosiers and here they seem to be faster.
PPS here a half-second in 35 is the difference between first and fifth places.
cheers.

 

I was going to say, if you are serious about autocrossing, you need to decide which class you can be most competitive in with 109hp, and then adjust your mods appropriately.

IMO, the rear sway with good intelligent camber adjustments with 15x7's and good tires like RE01-R's or Falken 615's will make you pretty competitive in a stock class. The higher the class you go to, the better the other drivers will be, so you may not be as likely to do well.

 

that's just great...while in fantasy land why don't u recommend a unicorn for a co-driver

 

see that's what i do
and i autocross with the "learner" cars with two steering wheels,
so when i can't make the turn well enough, the unicorn just takes over.

it's probably the best mod to get so far.

 

i meant using the unicorn as a navigator but your idea's much better

 

15X7 wheels do make a handling improvement BUT aren't a legal wheel for the Fit in a SCCA stock (H) class. Max for 2007-2008 cars is a 15x6.

 

Even better, our test track shows no diiference between 6" and 7" rims at 205 tire widths. If you can't measure thecduifference with a stopwatch, ...

 

OP, is that a bottle of NOS energy drink attached to your tow hook??!?! LOL

 

Well, I crammed a 235x15 on the 7" rim and found it cornered better. On what track did you test out the 205" tires?

 

On our track: its a small 1/8 mile oval with a twisted figure 8. Stopwatch readings on both 6" and 7" rims for 205 width tires were not statistically different.
And how did you determined there was better cornering? Did you stopwatch the two? and then statistically determine if the result was significant? In our case the result was always within 95% confidence limits there was not significant difference.
Ordinarily one would think the heavier wheel would be at a disadvantage but the weight of the tire far overcomes the wheel weight.
And likewise the wider the tire without going a little less diameter the car gets slower. In that case the heavier tire loses because the rotational energy saps both cornering power and acceleratio.
We didn't try 235's but did try 225's and they were a LOT slower. You can't expect a vehicle with only 109 hp to pull big heavy tires.
cheers.